You know, I wouldn’t be alive if only select people would be allowed to be born to this world.

Krondor2000

I wonder if the doctor already knows what happened between Deacon and Jeff? And she is just asking Deacon questions for confirmation? After all, Deacon is an android. Surely there must be some sort of recorder in his programming like a ‘black box’ that records every movement and actions he performs?

I like this little reveal. So colonies further away from the larger ruling government start to follow their own laws and behave less socially acceptable then closer to the government where I’m sure said government (or corporation) has a tight grip on everyone’s balls…so to speak.

I love panel two. When I saw panel two, I heard crickets in the background in my mind. xD

(I’m really starting to love Maven and her personality. She’s the female personification of one of my favorite types of guys in any game with dating simulation gameplay, the cool glasses wearing sly doctor/student/etc who manipulates others. the ‘shadow king’ or in Maven’s case, ‘queen’. Oh yes, Maven, I know your type all to well. <.<)

bah, any game, movie, anime, or story will have this type. There are basic personality cliches you will always see pop up. The cool character. The hero. The clown. The know-it-all. Even though many of us try to veer from these, they still show up. Deacon, for example, would fit the cool character type up to this point. Maven is the know-it-all type. Jeff is the hero type. That’s just my assessment from what I’ve seen so far, though. =P As we know, people may fit a category but diverge in many directions…which is what makes a person unique from each other.

Lorescien

I… I don’t even have any words for this. It’s so darn beautifully written, draw… *loving sigh* This is honestly one of my favourite webcomics. Out of the zillions I read, lol, this one’s just… LOVE. ^_^

Sorry. Just can’t like or trust the Maven character. She’s like those shrinks that interview someone who’s been arrested to determine if they’re sound enough to stand trial. There’s nothing wrong with that but here she holds the power of life or death over Deacon pretty much literally. She won’t wield the weapon but other than that she gets to be judge, jury, and executioner. There should be more protections in place but I suppose artificial life is fairly new here from how the security people were discussing it in the first pages. To protect himself from Maven Deacon needs a lawyer who will get him civil rights. He’s in no position to find one but unless everyone from Jeff’s colony is being charged with a serious crime Jeff should be able to find one. That’s assuming Jeff doesn’t have problems with Deacon being artificial. It’s one thing when you’re Adam and Steve on a planet where you’re the only people but another back in civilization. Jeff might be appalled now that he did it with a toaster so to speak…

LOL! You had me going with the serious tone of your comic and then the last lines totally cracked me up. 🙂

And yes, Maven does indeed hold the power of life and death over Deacon. In fact, she holds nearly absolute power over Deacon…

SteveMcSheffrey

Maybe it’s my unique way of wording things but people always seem to laugh the hardest when I think I’m being dead serious. You could even have the layman’s term for regretting sexing an artificial person as Toaster Shock. (okay, that one was supposed to be whimsical)…

Deacon’s face in panel five is priceless. I wonder who decided to program artificial life know how to back talk their superiors… I would shake their hand :3 Someone that follows without any questions, even if the questions are just silly instead of an actual one, would be boring to deal with.

The colonies-as-puritanical revelation feels very Firefly. That conflict between the overly regulated, civilized Alliance and the more savage outer planets. And the whole war that started because they wanted the right to be uncivilized and barbaric. You could take this a lot of very interesting places. And I like the isolation parallels being drawn between Deacon and our poor, beleaguered homosexual. A+ writing and art work, right here. :]

Oh, I can’t wait to see where this is leading! I missed last Saturday, so I just put off reading it until today. lol

I will admit that I had to go back and read the whole thing again from the beginning. I’m absolutely loving these characters. <3 I'm almost ashamed to admit that I'm tempted to name one of the week old kittens we've got Jeff. XD

These are going to be very socialized kittens. And I don’t get to keep any of them. 🙁 I’ve already got too many cats. The mom is perfectly fine with them snuggling up against my hip on the couch when she’s not nursing them.

I find it kind of amusing.

Fazzey

I love how Deacon raises his eyebrow in imitation of the good doctor in panel 5. Little details are so wonderful. Keep up the awesome writing & eyecandy art.

Hopefully all this empathy Maven is showing for Jeff indicates that she’ll intercede on his behalf with the company in case they’re still planning on eliminating all the loose ends from the fiasco on Da Vinci Four. Or maybe she’s just trying to get Deacon to open up by making him think that she might do that…

I am enjoying this comic so very much. I’m so used to reading kind of petty shallow comics with stock characters that make me kind of…disgusted, and a little ashamed to be gay.

But this comic has so much more substance and it so well written and even though there isn’t that much up yet i can see it going so many places and just becoming better with every page posted, as it has up till now.

I love the character development and find it amazing that a comic with three focus characters still manages to seem expansive and ‘real-life sized.’

Thank you very much for your kind words. I know I’m doing something a little different here and thus this comic won’t be for everyone, so I’m delighted to hear from people like yourself who like where I’m going with this.

You’ve put a big smile on my face, Sir. I hope you’ll keep coming back to let me know what you think. 🙂

MrJakeyFakey

Of course i will! With every page probably, when i get the email saying there’s a new page it always makes me smile.

Especially now seeing as i am sitting at home sick, looking for anything to make me feel less frumpy and run down. I will be waiting for the next page! and i love that your being a little more daring with your plot and character! I am honestly interested and not just waiting for smut, which I will sheepishly admit…i usually am.

And here we are, at my favorite part of my week! (and yes, I’m a day late. Shame on me, and shame on my work schedule being insensitive to my daily webcomic regimen!)

Best part of this page for me? The second panel, how Maven is literally on the edge of her seat, listening to this story. I get the feeling that she’s quickly becoming something of a metaphor for all of us real life readers. We’re all paying very close attention to every detail that Deacon relays, we’re all asking questions, looking for confirmation and insight. I also get the sense that she’s starting to lose her ability to remain impartial to these events. Maybe she doesn’t notice it now, or maybe it’s only just starting, but I think (hope!) she will be completely speechless by the end, just as I’m sure we will.

Also, Winona, your ability to draw backgrounds leaves me green with envy D: I can draw people fairly well, but furniture and landscapes are so beyond me. Only the artist for “Unsounded” has ever given me such a feeling of respect and admiration. You, madam, rock the world.

Maven as a surrogate for the readers! That’s a very interesting take. (And as she is the “audience” for Deacon’s story, one that makes a lot of sense.)

As for whether Maven would *ever* be speechless, well, let’s just say it’s never happened before… 🙂

And Winona totally rocks my world too. As does Unsounded (even though I haven’t gotten super far into it yet…

WandNCritic

Hmm, like some here have suspected, it is the colony that is close-minded, not necceserily the entire future comunity, the colony offering a censorship of sorts from acceptance. Up to this point, I have considered Maven to be the villain, my favorite character, being she has access to much of the information she may need to control somebody, given her position. This page did not change that, but given the last panel, with Winona’s expressive art and Maven’s bitter face, she may not trully be on the side of the company, acting as a “freelance” villain, her goals being personal rather than general. Perhaps she may even try to recruit an aly.

The sound effect for panel two would just be “Uncomfortable silence…” And I was talking about this comic to my family this weekend since they saw my picture of Maven laying around my house and when I mentioned it only updates once a week I paused and started dancing going, “On Saturday! Which is today! Meaning it updated TODAY!” 😀 😀 of course I was super-busy and couldn’t get to the computer until MONDAY, but it’s still there waiting! XD Oh Deacon, must you be so surly? And will I ever get to know what the other four were named? Because it’s STILL grating on my mind.

I suspect they all would be named Deacon. If their world is really as cruel towards artificial lifeforms as they seem to be, I’d suspect they wouldn’t put too much time into names. If they had to identify them from each other, it would probably be with numbers. Since Deacon is the only survivor, there is no need to identify him with a number and it allows Maven to make Deacon feel more human. This is my suspicions, but I think my logic is sound.

Ahh I keep forgetting about this comic then I see the ad at Starfighter and I get so excited by the 3 or 4 new pages I haven’t seen yet. I love the way this story flows. Its very smooth, and I have a personal love for frame stories as comics. Though I miss “No Kissing” I keep waiting for an email update, but I know comic writing takes time.

puritanical… such an icky word. I’m not sure what to despise worst, the bigoted outer colonies or the sterile and stuck-up core worlds. ick! I don’t think i’d want to live either. Definitely not the outer colonies. I couldn’t go a day with out needing to scratch someones eyes out. But don’t think I’d want to live in the other world either. I’m sure your going to introduce more characters that i’m going to want to chew on.

she’s being sneaky and obvious at the same time. “just thinking out loud” riiiiight… Deacon’s coming off as rather desperate to show that he doesn’t care about Jeff.

I’ve learned a new English word today – puritanical. To be honest, it seems like a mix of puritan and satanical. I guess the people who came up with the word knew from experience what they were talking about. xD

Kabbalist

I’m beginning to think that Dr. Maven really IS a good psychologist/psychotherapist. She definitely knows how to draw someone out. I don’t quite trust her yet, though. Would signs of real empathy from Deacon be viewed as an indication that he’s salvageable or as a potentially-dangerous evolution of his programmed logic processes?